Biology & Wildlife Facilities

The Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory (AIL) is a multi-instrument resource for the state of Alaska. It specializes in surface and elemental analysis as well as electron microscopy. It supports and trains undergraduate and graduate students and provides technical support and facilities to researchers as well as local, state, federal, and private agencies.

The Core Facility for Nucleic Acid Analysis (DNA Core Lab) maintains an array of modern molecular biological equipment for faculty and students, including DNA sequencers, thermal cyclers for PCR and real-time PCR, spectrophotometers, an HPLC and flow cytometer. Several of our undergraduate and graduate laboratory courses engage students in research projects, which take advantage of the instrumentation available in the Core Lab.

The UA Museum of the North houses more than 1.4 million artifacts and specimens, organized into 10 research disciplines, including archaeology, earth sciences (including paleontology and geology), entomology, ethnology, film, fine arts, herbarium, ichthyology, mammalogy and ornithology. The faculty curators and collections not only provide resources for academic training at undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, but are also involved in community outreach, including school visits, public presentations, and workshops.

The Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station (LARS) provides a unique facility for research and education that focuses on ungulates from the subarctic and arctic. Faculty and students are engaged in research on the biology, ecology, physiology and behavior of muskoxen, caribou, and reindeer.

Toolik Field Station (TFS) is a world-renowned research station located in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range in Alaska at 68° 38' N, 149° 36' W, elevation 720 m. Toolik-based researchers and students have access to three major physiographic provinces of Alaska: the Brooks Range, the arctic foothills, and the arctic coastal plain. Students participating in the Summer Field Course in Arctic Science, taught at UAF and TFS, learn about the biology of the arctic and boreal forest systems, including fire ecology, snow ecology, plant ecology, invertebrate and mammal biology, carbon budgets, and the implications of a warming climate.

Students study plant genetics in the IAB greenhouse as part of their coursework in BIOL F481 (Principals of Evolution). Photo Credit: Todd Paris

Cody Johnson, a research assistant from Utah State University in Logan, left, explains data-collecting procedures to graduate student Melissa Sanders during an outing from UAF's Toolik Field Station to gather samples from a neighboring lake. Photo Credit: Todd Paris